The funding includes US$22.6 for the DR Congo, US$7 million for Burundi, US$17.7 million for Rwanda and US$22.3 million for Uganda. This is on top of the US$282.4 million budget for 2013 approved last October by UNHCR's governing body for all operations in these four countries.

The money is vital for meeting the basic needs of the estimated 453,600 Congolese civilians displaced within the DRC and across borders because of the violence last year in North and South Kivu provinces, including 5,600 refugees in Burundi, 23,000 in Rwanda and 35,000 in Uganda.

The appeal also covers the needs of 50,000 newly displaced people and 50,000 IDP returnees forecast for this year as well as an anticipated 5,400 refugees in Burundi, 11,000 in Rwanda and 40,000 in Uganda.

The supplementary funding covers the costs of registering refugees, protection activities for refugees and IDPs, construction of a new refugee camp in Burundi, infrastructure improvement at sites for the displaced and transit centres in all four countries; distribution of shelter and non-food aid; and support for basic services in IDP and refugee sites, including health, education, and water and sanitation.

In the DRC, specific activities include distribution of 16,600 transitional shelters, increased protection monitoring, construction of 16,000 latrines in return sites and villages, drilling of 35 new wells and installation of water distribution systems.

In Burundi, aside from constructing a new camp in Cankuzo for 10,000 people we also intend to establish and equip two new transit centres and launch vocational training initiatives in the camp. Our plans for Rwanda center on the Kigeme refugee camp, which was reopened and expanded last year and will soon reach its capacity of 25,000. Facilities need to be developed and homes repaired and we aim to strengthen the local and health services to cater for the refugee population.

In Uganda, we will continue to maintain and improve the two main transit centres in the south as well as the Rwamwanja settlement, which is expected to reach its maximum capacity of 50,000 during the year. Plans include creating new villages and associated infrastructure at the settlement, allocating land, shelter materials and basic relief items for 13,500 newly arrived families. We also plan to boost health care and education facilities.

The supplementary budget appeal comes amid rising political uncertainty and tension – and fresh displacement – in eastern DR Congo following a power struggle within the rebel M23 movement. Thousands of people have been displaced within North Kivu province, including some 3,000-4,000 who took refuge around the MONUSCO base in Kitchanga, while more than 4,000 have fled to Uganda over the past week.

After three years of relative peace between the government and a myriad of armed group in the east, fighting broke out last March-April in North Kivu between the army and a group of mutineers, who called themselves the March 23 movement, or M23.

Waves of combat forced huge numbers of civilians to flee to safer areas within DRC or to in neighbouring countries. Last November, the M23 advanced on and briefly held the provincial capital, Goma. Peace talks began in December in Kampala, but last week the future looked uncertain once more when the military and political wings of the M23 split last week and fighting erupted. Days earlier, regional African leaders meeting in Addis Ababa had signed a UN-brokered accord aimed at bringing peace.

The fresh uncertainty in the region makes this appeal all the more important and reinforces how fragile and unstable the situation is and how important it is that the international community helps those who suffer most – the civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times. Indeed, the humanitarian situation in the DRC has deteriorated over the past six months and there is a serious risk of large scale epidemics such as cholera and measles.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that there are currently some 914,000 internally displaced people in North Kivu and 912,000 in South Kivu. Most live with host communities, but some 114,000 live in camps.

Uganda: Sudanese Refugees Flee Rebel Attacks

On August 5, 2002, some 24,000 Sudanese refugees fled their homes in Achol-Pii camp in northern Uganda after a bloody attack by the Lord's Liberation Army rebel group. More than 60 refugees and many local villagers were killed in the attack.

Fearing further violence, displaced refugees trekked overnight to Lira, from where UNHCR trucked them to Kiryondongo, 100 km to the south-west. Kiryondongo site, a settlement already hosting 13,000 refugees, was temporarily extended to accommodate the Achol-Pii survivors until another site could be prepared.

Arriving families were initially accommodated at an expanded reception centre at Kiryondongo. After being registered, the new arrivals received UNHCR plastic sheeting, an emergency food ration and a 20 x 15-metre plot per family to build their own temporary shelter. UNHCR also distributed blankets and jerry cans. Additional latrines were also dug, new water pumps installed and a new emergency clinic was set up.

Uganda: Sudanese Refugees Flee Rebel Attacks

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

As a massive food distribution gets underway in six UNHCR-run camps for tens of thousands of internally displaced Congolese in North Kivu, the UN refugee agency continues to hand out desperately needed shelter and household items.

A four-truck UNHCR convoy carrying 33 tonnes of various aid items, including plastic sheeting, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans crossed Wednesday from Rwanda into Goma, the capital of the conflict-hit province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The aid, from regional emergency stockpiles in Tanzania, was scheduled for immediate distribution. The supplies arrived in Goma as the World Food Programme (WFP), with assistance from UNHCR, began distributing food to some 135,000 displaced people in the six camps run by the refugee agency near Goma.

More than 250,000 people have been displaced since the fighting resumed in August in North Kivu. Estimates are that there are now more than 1.3 million displaced people in this province alone.

Posted on 6 November 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Since 2006, renewed conflict and general insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo's North Kivu province has forced some 400,000 people to flee their homes – the country's worst displacement crisis since the formal end of the civil war in 2003. In total, there are now some 800,000 people displaced in the province, including those uprooted by previous conflicts.

Hope for the future was raised in January 2008 when the DRC government and rival armed factions signed a peace accord. But the situation remains tense in North Kivu and tens of thousands of people still need help. UNHCR has opened sites for internally displaced people (IDPs) and distributed assistance such as blankets, plastic sheets, soap, jerry cans, firewood and other items to the four camps in the region. Relief items have also been delivered to some of the makeshift sites that have sprung up.

UNHCR staff have been engaged in protection monitoring to identify human rights abuses and other problems faced by IDPs and other populations at risk across North Kivu.

UNHCR's ninemillion campaign aims to provide a healthy and safe learning environment for nine million refugee children by 2010.

Posted on 28 May 2008

UNHCR/Partners Bring Aid to North Kivu

Uganda: A Father's Troubles

Forty-five-year-old Gabriel fled South Sudan with his wife and children to find safety in the UN compound in Bor. But, in April 2014, his wife was killed when an armed mob forced their way in, and now he is a single father to five children, seeking a better life in Uganda.

Uganda: Unique Approach For South Sudanese

Uganda has taken in thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing conflict. The government is helping the new arrivals by giving them land on which to build a shelter.

Our Sister, Our Mother - 2013 UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award Laureate

The 2013 winner of UNHCR`s Nansen Refugee Award is Sister Angelique Namaika, who works in the remote north east region of Democratic Republic of the Congo with survivors of displacement and abuse by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). She has helped over 2000 displaced women and girls who have suffered the most awful kidnapping and abuse, to pick up the pieces of their lives and become re-accepted by their communities.